The Idea and Day 1

I am a fan of The Great Trail (formerly called the Trans Canada Trail).  As I write this the 22,000 km trail is 93% complete. Walking the trail enriches lives from coast to coast to coast. The trail inspires and brings Canadians together. I hope each of you have had the opportunity to explore parts of the trail near where you live.  

I also love walking in the James Bay area of Victoria where I now live in retirement.  With a mix of developed and natural coast, urban streets, the beautiful Beacon Hill Park, it offers incredible variety in a loop walk of an hour or so. Most days I spend at least an hour walking, sometimes more. I look forward to sharing my daily walks with you through this blog.

So the plan is to track the distance I walk each day, and to trace it out along The Great Trail, gradually working my way from west to east. I have started where I live in Victoria, BC and my goal is to make it to Sackville, NB, where I lived for most of my life. I plan to count only walking I do specifically for walking sake, that is not count walking I do to go to a store or do everyday things.

I realize this will take many years, and even if I don't make it all the way, it still will be fun! I deliberately am not setting a goal for how much I will walk each day, or how long it will take.  It would be wonderful if I could complete it by May, 2022.  That would correspond to my 50th year after graduation from Mount Allison University, and I plan to be there for the reunion so I could do the final walking actually in New Brunswick.

On this blog I will share a little bit both about where I am really walking (usually James Bay, Victoria, occasionally elsewhere) and what I have learned about where I am imagining walking. On the top right I will update what day I am on (I started this on August 27, 2017), the total distance I have walked, and the last community that I virtually visited.

For the starting day I got from Clover Point in Victoria, BC (within a couple of km from my home) to the Uptown region of Saanich, BC. The first part of today's route included the very beautiful section along the Dallas Road coastal path, then a portion of the David Foster Harbour Pathway, and then joined up with the Galloping Goose regional trail. You can see it (in green) on the map on the right.  Click on the image to see it in higher resolution.

Thanks for coming along on my walk!

-Bob

Day 1 I walked 10.5 km which took me from a starting point at Clover Point to the Uptown region of Saanich, BC.